1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of pet and human health and more particularly to an automated method for curing bad breath by periodically introducing a safe amount of molecular iodine into drinking water.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known in the art that in many circumstances so-called bad oral breath is caused by microbes in the mouth and specifically between the teeth and gum tissue. Some of these microbes produce sulfur-containing compounds that can lead to “rotten-egg” breath and can be very pronounced in animals with periodontal disease.
It is also known in the art to use iodine to disinfect drinking water, and in particular, others have used iodine to disinfect animal drinking water. For example, the system sold under the name of UltraDyne-a™ adds one cap full of its iodine containing formula to 30,000 parts of animal's drinking water resulting in a working solution of 1-5 ppm/mL. This can result in very large amounts of iodine anions along with molecular iodine or “free iodine” being consumed on a daily basis. The amounts added to the water will result in the animals consuming 10-20 times the recommended amount of total iodine for thyroid function and could lead to deleterious outcomes (weight loss, hyperthyroidism, failure to thrive, etc.). Prior art iodine additives use a mixture of iodine compounds including iodides and iodates as well as molecular iodine. This is generally done since molecular iodine dissipates fairly rapidly from water at neutral pH. The iodides and iodates, at a slightly acid pH, continue to produce more molecular iodine.
Harvey et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,919,374 teach disinfecting water for farm animals with iodine. Solid iodine is first dissolved in water to produce a saturated iodine species-containing aqueous solution at a pre-selected temperature. This solution is then blended with the drinking water to produce a diluted iodine species bacterium-free aqueous solution. A disadvantage of this method is that generally the water has to be heated to a controlled temperature to dissolve the iodine. Also, Harvey recommends maintaining a fixed amount of iodine concentration in the water continuously. This is a disadvantage because it may lead to particular animals ingesting too much iodine, and because iodine generally leaves a water solution fairly rapidly at room temperature, there may be considerable wasted iodine.
Iodine exists in many forms in aqueous solution at room temperature and neutral pH. These include I−, I2, HOI, H2OI+, OI−, I3−, and I5−. Because I2 is the only anti-infective form of iodine in water at pH below 7 (HOI dominates in water above pH 7) in any of the prior art systems, it would be very advantageous to have a unique system that delivers only molecular iodine (I2) into pet drinking water. Such a method and system will kill oral bacteria responsible for bad breath. In addition, iodine reacts with sulfur containing compounds e.g., hydrogen sulfide responsible for the malodor in pet breath and neutralizes the odor by the reaction between molecular iodine and methyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulfide and hydrogen sulfide, to produce the corresponding sulfonic acids which have substantially reduced odor or sulfur smell.